


Making People Happy

by chockfullofsecrets



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Early in Canon, Fluff, Gen, Tickling, they could probably all use hugs in this one, whoops i've been converted to #alltieflingsareknismos
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-06
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-12 08:13:42
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,093
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29881647
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chockfullofsecrets/pseuds/chockfullofsecrets
Summary: Jester fidgets with her sleeves for a minute, then with her tail and then -Then, she has anidea. A wonderful, brilliant idea that’s going to cure her boredom and also hopefully make Caleb a lot less grumpy.Beau and Caleb are fighting,again, and Jester's determined to solve at least half of this problem.
Relationships: Jester Lavorre & Caleb Widogast, Jester Lavorre & Nott | Veth Brenatto, Jester Lavorre/Caleb Widogast, Nott | Veth Brenatto & Caleb Widogast
Comments: 6
Kudos: 31





	Making People Happy

Jester’s new friends aren’t like anyone she’s ever met before.

Some of them are _super_ strong - like her! - and some of them can do _magic_ even though they don’t know the Traveler - and _some_ of them, she thinks, eyeing Fjord where he crouches over the beginnings of a fire, are very, _very_ handsome -

More importantly, at the moment - her new friends are also _really fucking grumpy_.

The Lavish Chateau has had its fair share of visitors that snap like Beau or sulk like Caleb - but there’s always been a door or a wall in the way, Jester on the other side peeking through at the mess. The two of them have been arguing over some bits of Empire history for hours on the road, through Fjord gritting his teeth and Nott chugging from her flask and Molly wrapping himself in his coat to block them all out and get some sleep.

Jester had sat and sketched them - the way Caleb’s eyes went razor sharp among the dirt and hair on his face, the hooked snarl of Beau’s smile. There was a little space left at the bottom of the page, reserved for when they finally stopped and made up, but as the afternoon wore on she had given up on filling it. 

Adventuring is plenty of fun, and she’s real good at it, but - sometimes she misses home. The simplicity, if not the loneliness.

They make camp in silence. Caleb stalks off the minute his bedroll is laid out, shoulders up around his ears.

“Yeah, you better run,” Beau lobs after him. There’s a soft _oof_ as someone - presumably Fjord - elbows her. 

“ _All right_ ,” Molly interjects, finally, and waits for all of them to turn and stare at him sitting cross-legged on the grassy earth. He smiles beatifically under their attention. “While we wait for that mess to simmer down… dinner?” 

Beau is sullenly silent. “Dinner,” Fjord agrees around her. 

Molly holds an arm out to her. “Preferences, dear?” Taking the invitation wholeheartedly, Jester is on the ground and scrambling to cuddle up to his side with a speed that surprises even her. Molly just laughs and squeezes her around the shoulders. 

She headbutts him playfully in the chest, minding her horns. “We should have something _delicious_ , and really warm and nice, and maybe it can be sweet too-”

“The sweetest thing we have right now is carrots,” Fjord says flatly, but he’s - finally! - smiling too, and even Beau’s fists unclench a little when Jester groans dramatically and slumps completely into Molly. “Beau, would you care to help me slice some of them up with your incredible monk skills?”

Beau grumbles something under her breath. “I use my fists, man, I’m not a _ninja_.”

“You punch carrots into pieces? That’s insane.”

The visual and Fjord’s nonplussed tone have all of them laughing, even Beau, and the two of them get up to wrestle some food out of the cart. She nuzzles contentedly into Molly. “You’re really good at that,” she tells him. “Making people happy.”

Molly shrugs like he hasn’t just salvaged their chances of staying together as a group. “It’s good to get everything resolved before dinnertime. The things I’ve seen angry people do with hot food…” 

“ _Really?_ ,” she gasps, faux-scandalized, and then squeaks as Molly’s hand makes its way down to her tummy and starts tickling right at the soft spot under her ribs. “Hehey! Tell - _heehee_ \- tell me!”

She tries to tickle him back, reaching between them to pinch his side, but he just jumps a little and searches out her belly button to make her laugh even harder. “Maybe later. Come on, let’s not laze around - we’ll see if we can’t find some more firewood, hm?”

She bounces happily on her toes, swinging Molly’s arm around her like a shawl and then twirling it away as they both get up. “I’ll get you back, you know!”

Molly’s cheeks go dark purple, like they always do when she threatens him. It just makes her more intent on following through. “ I look forward to it,” is all he says, eyes flashing devilishly, and shoos her in one direction before sauntering off in the other. “Don’t go too far.”

“I won’t,” she calls over her shoulder, and immediately makes for the rise that Caleb disappeared over. 

He’s so squishy, after all - if anyone shouldn’t be wandering off, it’s _him_.

She passes one tree, then another, leaves crunching under her boots. It’s clear after a few seconds that she doesn’t know any of the things that would help her figure out which direction Caleb is in, so she scoops her holy symbol up in one hand and flicks it with her thumb. “Oh, Traveler! Help me out here, okay?”

She’s asked for his help a million times before, for pranks and spells and just wanting company, and he has yet to disappoint - a gust of wind shuffles through her skirts and blows her bangs right into her eyes.

Well. No one would call the Traveler _nice_ , but neither is she.

She spits out a hunk of hair, grinning, and skips along after it. Sure enough, there’s a flash of red hair that soon resolves itself into their stray wizard. 

Caleb’s knees are tucked up under his chin, his back painfully straight against a tree. His eyes are closed - and it’s _dangerous_ to sit in the middle of the woods with your eyes closed, isn’t it, especially when you’re a stinky wizard that probably attracts _lots_ of bugs? 

Caleb’s not dumb. But this? Very dumb. She’s going to wake him up and tell him so, and take him back to camp for dinner, and everything will be better tomorrow. 

She reaches for his shoulder, but just as she’s about to grab him - 

“Jester?”

“ _Nott!_ ” She stumbles back, grabbing her face in shock as a particularly greenish patch of shadow transforms into a cloak with little pointed ears. “Where did you even come from?!”

“Oh, you know. Rogue stuff.” Nott shrugs, scampering up to meet her like she hasn’t just appeared from _nowhere_. “Caleb’s scouting right now, so I’m making sure nothing sneaks up on him.”

She knows that Caleb can’t hear them, but they’re in a dark forest and everyone else is being quiet so she kneels down and whispers to Nott anyways. “What, with Frumpkin? Why can’t he do that in camp? Not that you’re doing a bad job or anything, but we would _totally_ look out for him too, you know.”

“He knows, it’s just-” Nott glances over at Caleb. “It’s been a long day.”

She sits there, both of them watching Caleb’s eyelids twitch. “Can I stay here with you, then? Just in case.”

“Sure, pull up some floor,” Nott encourages, and sidles over to tuck herself under Caleb’s arm. He makes an acknowledging noise and pulls her in, letting her rearrange herself against the folds of his coat, and Jester tries very _very_ hard not to think of the way she used to cuddle with her mama as she settles on Caleb’s other side. It doesn’t quite work - the careful inches that she leaves between them, not wanting to spook him with her sudden appearance, feel like every single league from here to Nicodranas.

And. Well. It’s _boring_.

Jester fidgets with her sleeves for a minute, then with her tail and then -

Then, she has an _idea_. A wonderful, brilliant idea that’s going to cure her boredom and also hopefully make Caleb a lot less grumpy.

She holds out a single finger, wiggles it around a bit and smirks to herself, and then gently, gently reaches around behind Caleb’s knees to poke at his tummy. 

He really is thin, and her finger sinks further into the ratty fabric of his shirt than she expects. But eventually her fingertip finds the soft curve of his belly and she skitters it around a bit, trying to find something sensitive.

Nothing happens. 

She pouts, pulling her hand back, but after a moment of consideration she dives right back in, searching for his belly button - surely even _he’s_ ticklish there. It takes a couple seconds of patting around - not a _single_ muscle here, no wonder he goes down so easily in fights - but she finally finds the little dip of flesh and wriggles her finger inside. 

Caleb does flinch at that, snorting a little and reaching hastily to bat her away. “Nott the Brave,” he huffs, the corner of his mouth twitching up, “what is going on out there? Are you all right?”

There’s a little _fwip_ as Nott tugs wire through her fingers. “All clear here, Caleb! I’ll take care of it.” 

The second Caleb hums in acknowledgement, Nott whips out from under Caleb’s arm to glare at her. “What are you doing? I thought you were here to help him-”

“We don’t even need to scout!” Jester protests. She rubs guiltily at the back of her hand. “And if he comes back to camp, then maybe he and Beau can talk and-”

Nott cuts her off, teeth flashing. “Caleb didn’t do anything wrong! If she says one more thing to him, I will _shoot_ her-”

“Nott!” she interrupts, horrified. “Geez, calm down, we don’t have to shoot anyone!” 

Nott quiets suddenly in her odd way, retreating slightly into Caleb’s shadow. “Well… all right.” 

“Then shouldn’t we bring him back?”

Nott wraps a strand of hair around her finger, yellow eyes flicking from her to Caleb. “It makes him feel better to be in Frumpkin sometimes,” she says. “To be someone else for a bit.” Her eyes close. “I definitely wouldn’t want to be in this body, if I could choose.”

“Oh,” Jester says. She spins through a couple half-formed sentences and then thinks _fuck it_ and reaches out to squeeze Nott’s hand instead. “That’s really sad, Nott.”

Nott sniffs and squeezes her hand back. “No, no, it’s alright… Caleb and I are going to figure it out. He’s very smart.” 

Jester nods with considerably more certainty than she feels, pulling on a smile. “Well, I think that maybe he would feel even better if he just talked to Beau. I know these things! Sometimes I would be upset with Mama, and if I couldn’t talk to her about it I would have to go just stay in my room and it was all I could think about until I saw her again.”

Nott blinks. “Your mom just left you alone in your room?”

Wrong turn, wrong turn - “Oh, well, we had to, you know?”

“Sure, sure.” Nott’s eyes are still fixed squarely on Jester. “I wouldn’t know, I don’t have kids or anything.”

She kind of wants to chase that particular thread, but before she can say anything Nott sighs and looks back to Caleb. “You know what? Bring him back. He should have finished lapping around the camp by now anyway.”

Now _that’s_ the turn she wants to take. “Really?” she asks, and doesn’t wait for a response before scooting around to sit in front of Caleb and stretch her fingers teasingly - really, it’s a shame that Caleb can’t see her right now or he would definitely be squirming. “Hm hm _hm_ , okay, let’s see - hey, Nott, do you know where Caleb’s ticklish?”

They both consider Caleb’s skinny frame, the distinct lack of laugh lines. Nott scrambles around next to Jester and cocks her head thoughtfully. “His ribs, maybe? When we were on the road together, we couldn’t always light a fire and Caleb would let me sleep under his coat with him.” She smiles. “He wouldn’t complain when I moved around, but I think it tickled him a little.”

It sounds very cute, in her mind - so cute that she reaches for Nott and tickles her belly through all those layers instead. “Aw, did you squirm a lot? How come?” 

Nott squawks and somehow rolls away to Jester’s other side between one blink and the next. “Hey! Focus!” 

Jester pouts. “You never tickled him, though? How could you not? He’s so grumpy and sad all the time.”

“Oh, well…” Nott grimaces. “We were both pretty grumpy and sad, because we were very poor and on the run from the law. Honestly, I’ve never thought about it.”

“Oh,” Jester says. Maybe she shouldn’t have told them about the horse dresses.

Nott shrugs. “That’s why it’s good that we have you around, I guess. You make us all happier.”

That - the recognition, the simple way Nott says it, as fact - lights something bright and warm in her chest. “You really think so?”

“Yes! I mean…” She gestures to Caleb. “It’s not like anyone else came out here to look for us.”

“I will _always_ come look for you, Nott.”

“Thanks Jessie, but we’re kind of worried about _him_ right now-”

“Right, right.” She turns back to Caleb and wraps her hands gently around his ribs, right under his book holster. “Oh, _Cay_ -leb…”

She wiggles a finger into his left side, then his right, delighted as he starts to squirm between her hands. “Coochie coochie coo,” she teases softly, even knowing that he can’t hear her yet. “Come on, wake up!”

Caleb reaches up and shoves her hands away, but that’s hardly a deterrent - and the little yelp of shock as her fingers get right back to tickling is _very_ good. For the first time since she’s known him, laughter threatens under Caleb’s low tone. “Nott, _was_ -”

And then, almost pleading - “Nott, that. It. It ti - tick -”

_Oh_. Oh, he can barely even say it. Jester beams.

Behind her, Nott sounds alarmed. “Jessie, you look _evil_ right now.”

She stops tickling briefly and turns around. “Nott!” she whisper-screams. “He’s so ticklish!” 

“You’re enjoying this, huh?”

She scoffs. “Yes, of course! All tieflings do.” It’s true, for all of two tieflings that Jester knows - her mama and Molly _love_ tickling, and so does she. And so will the rest of their group, if she and Molly have anything to say about it. 

She turns back to Caleb, squeezing back and forth between his ribs to make him wriggle again, and this time Caleb comes fully back to himself with a gasp. His eyes blink open, scanning frantically. She sees him register Nott, off to the side, then jump a little as he finds her right in front of him. His cheeks redden. “Ah - Jester -”

“Caleb,” she purrs, and twitches the tips of her fingers just a little. “Hey, did you know that your ribs are really, _really_ ticklish?” 

His arms shrink back against his sides, pressing her hands even further into his ribs where she’s still latched on. “They - I - I’m not-”

“Oh? You’re not ticklish?” Jester worms her fingers into the grooves of his ribs. “How come you’re so _smiley_ then, huh, Caleb? What’s so funny?”

One of Caleb’s hands reaches up to pat shakily at the corner of his mouth, feeling out the wobbly grin there. He shoves it hastily over the lower half of his face. “I’m not!”

“No, _I’m_ Nott,” Nott says, sounding terribly amused. “Come on, Caleb, I don’t think you’re fooling her.”

Jester doesn’t give him a chance to try again. “No, no, maybe he’s right!” She buries a hand under his arm, fingertips curling cruelly against the tender skin there, and reaches around his knees to find his belly button again with the other. “Maybe’s he’s not ticklish at all, not even a little, not even if I tickle right _here_ -”

Caleb’s entire body jerks, eyes flaring wide as she digs in. “ _Mmph_ \- heh-”

He’s much more ticklish when he’s paying attention, it seems. She can feel him trying to suck in his tummy, desperate to keep her away, and his face disappears into his knees as he brings his hands down in a futile attempt to protect his armpit. He can’t stop himself from laughing, though - he breaks almost instantly, whining through peals of frantic laughter as she reverts to nibbling little pinches along his ribs. “Ha - ha - _ahaha_!”

He kicks out, heels drumming against the ground as he spasms. “Uh oh,” Jester teases, digging her thumbs into his exposed tummy and rubbing in little circles, “that _definitely_ looks like it tickles. Were you _lying_ to us, Cay-leb?”

Caleb shakes his head, trying to hide against his shoulder now, and she can see red all the way to the tips of his ears. “Nn - _hngh_ \- plehehease, _bitte_ ,” he chokes out through an adorably enormous grin. “Why - I don’t-”

“Why am I tickling you?” she finishes, gleefully noting how he flinches at the word. “We-ll, at first you just looked _so_ sad and lonely out here that Nott and I thought we should cheer you up. But now that I know you were lying about how very, _very_ ticklish you are…” She digs back into his ribs, giggling as he breaks down into laughter all over again. “Well, now I think I’m just gonna tickle you until you admit it.”

“ _No_ ,” Caleb pleads breathlessly. He doesn’t seem to be making any moves to get away from her, though, just flops onto the ground and shoves his face into an elbow. She could tease him about that too, she thinks, and maybe he would get even redder. 

“Or,” she says instead, tickling along the curve of his ribs to his back, “I could tell _Beau_ how ticklish you are and _she_ could make you admit it.”

He does try to get away, then, rolling onto his belly and trying to wriggle out from under her. “No, no,” he begs between snickers, “don’t tell her, gods-”

“I think it would help you two fight less,” she tells him, curling her fingers under him to tickle his tummy again. It’s cute, the way he rocks from side to side trying to protect all of his ticklish spots at once. “But _maybe_ , if you make up another way, then I won’t have to! And then no one else would have to know how _cute_ and _tickly_ you are, Caleb-”

“ _Fine_ ,” he says frantically, “yes, yes, just _stohop_ -”

She’s a little reluctant, especially when he starts to catch his breath and she just _knows_ that he could take more tickling, but technically this solves the problem.

And technically, he still hasn’t admitted anything. There could be a _lot_ of tickling in his future.

He’s back to normal now, holding Nott’s sleeve and whispering something sternly to her, but she tucks the memory of his infectious grin away for later. 

This, it seems, is a pretty decent way to make him happy.

**Author's Note:**

> this one's from [an anon prompt](https://chockfullofsecrets.tumblr.com/post/632915592772501504/so-ive-been-holding-onto-this-idea-for-a-bit-but) over on tumblr
> 
> Thank you for reading! If you're so inclined, [come say hi](https://chockfullofsecrets.tumblr.com)!


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